PARIS \u2014 Daouda Coulibaly\u2019s Mali-set \u201cWulu,\u201d Sebastian Marnier\u2019s \u201cFaultless\u201dand Thomas Kruithof\u2019s \u201cThe Eavesdropper\u201d form part of a gaggle of crime thrillers and sci-fi\/fantasy movies which unspool from this Thursday at the 19th UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema , France\u2019s annual national film showcase.
In volume, they certainly do not represent the most numerous film type at that market: That crown belongs to comedies, accounting for 32 of the 76 movies screening there. But a clutch of these crime thrillers are certainly among the best-reviewed at the Rendez-Vous market.
\u201cWho doesn\u2019t love a good sociopath? In novelist-director S\u00e9bastien Marnier \u2019s feature debut \u201c Faultless ,\u201d he conjures up a doozy,\u201d Variety wrote, calling \u201cThe Eavesdropper\u201d (aka \u201cScribe\u201d) \u201ca timely political thriller told with flair\u201d and \u201cWulu\u201d \u201can auspicious debut.\u201d
These suspense titles are joined at the Rendez-Vous by the only now=seen \u201cAlone,\u201d a bold departure for French cinema, a fantasy teen survival thriller, from \u201cIT Boy\u201d director David Moreau, and \u201cToril,\u201d Laurent Tessier\u2019s rural drug-trade thriller.
They come fast on the heels of three Cannes standouts: Alice Winocour\u2019s \u201cDisorder,\u201d with Matthias Schoenaerts (\u201cRust and Bone\u201d) as a ex special-ops bodyguard suffering PTSD; Houda Benyamina\u2019s Golden Globe nominated gangster movie \u201cDivines\u201d; and Julia Ducournau\u2019s campus cannibal movie \u201cRaw.\u201d
At November\u2019s American Film Market, Paris-based production house Vixens announced a new slate of elevated genre movies, including \u201cRosemary\u2019s Baby\u201d-ish \u201cHousewife,\u201d Turkish director Can Evrenol\u2019s follow-up to his hit \u201cBakin\u201d; H. P. Lovecraft adaptation \u201cBeyond the Wall of Sleep,\u201d the second feature from Christophe Deruo; and Vixens\u2019 first French-language movie, Martin Scali\u2019s crime drama \u201cUn Prince.\u201d
This is not a huge number of titles: France, after all, produces way over 200 features a year. But it does suggest that genre, especially French crime thrillers, one of France\u2019s greatest film traditions, is making a niche comeback.
\u201c\u2018Raw,\u2019 is a masterpiece. There are great young filmmakers with a strong viewpoints and vigorous takes on the genre,\u201d Kruithof maintained.
The comeback comes, moreover, thanks to an exciting new generation of directors, producers and sales agents now linking to some of France\u2019s top players \u2013 Gaumont, Wild Bunch, Haut et Court \u2013 and despite often adverse market and funding conditions.
Made 50 to 80 years after Marcel Carn\u00e9, Henri-Georges Cluzot and Jean-Pierre Melville were at the top of their game, this new wave naturally moves the tradition on. The trio of Cannes standouts were all directed by women, conspicuously absent from the good and great of French policiers, film noir, heist and gangster movies of the past.
France\u2019s new thriller wave is often set in opportune contemporary contexts. \u201cThe Eavesdropper,\u201d Kruithof\u2019s feature debut sold at the Rendez-Vous by WTFilms, unspools during the build-up to presidential elections in France. It stars Fran\u00e7ois Cluzet as a mild-mannered book-keeper hired by a shadowy head of a political espionage network working for a populist far-right politician who aims to make France great again. Though reminiscent of U. S. \u201980s teens movies, \u201cAlone\u201d features a gaggle of fast-talking French teens, and a French new town cityscape, its hypermarkets, highways and plush hotels.
France\u2019s new thriller build also unspools on a broader canvas. Produced by and sold at the Rendez-Vous by Indie Sales, \u201cWulu\u201d charts the inexorable rise of a sharp-witted Mali bus driver to drug-courier kingpin. It has been called a Malian Scarface.\u201d But unlike Pacino\u2019s character, \u201cWulu\u2019s\u201d anti-hero is always unhappy. He earns enough cash to buy a villa, hobnob with rich. But he loses his soul.
Genre in France is a push phenomenon, supported often passionately by a new generation of directors. Few are much over 40 in France.
\u201cLots of directors love genre, thrillers. Through them, we can renew cinema in France,\u201d said Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, producer of \u201cA Perfect Man\u201d and \u201cThe Eavesdropper.\u201d
The movies reveal a string of largely unknown young directors in sure command of their craft and able to elicit tremendous performances from their star leads.
But French genre production, especially of straight horror films, also faces huge challenges.
Horror genre\u2019s status in France is a \u201cdisaster,\u201d says Matteo Lovadino, at Reel Suspects, a Paris-based sales agency specialising in genre and fantastic cinema. Institutions steer clear of financing straightforward genre both in production and distribution, he said, citing the case of Lithuania\u2019s \u201cVanishing Waves\u201d which did not receive French stare support for its theatrical distribution in France. Straightforward horror genre cannot play primetime free-to-air genre \u2013 though thrillers and sci-fi titles have more of a chance reducing revenue opportunities for their distributors, he added.
France has been here before. A French splat pack \u2013 Alexandre Aja (2003\u2019s \u201cHigh Tension\u201d), Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (2007\u2019s \u201cInside\u201d), Pascal Laugier (2008\u2019s \u201cMartyrs\u201d) \u2013 made a clutch of extreme gore movies which delighted French fan boys, caught critics\u2019 attention ; and largely bombed at the French box office. French audiences couldn\u2019t take the extreme violence, decried horror movies as commercial crud.
\u201cThere was a wave of great genre directors. But Aja and that generation realised they couldn\u2019t make those fouls in France. Most left for the States,\u201d Gregory Chamber at WTFilms recalled.
\u201cNow there\u2019s a new wave of directors trying to get back to genre,\u201d he added.
The large question is what business models France\u2019s new genre practitioners can adopt, allowing directors to grow their careers with ever most ambitious projects.
One is to attempt to open up to new audiences. In \u201cA Perfect Man,\u201d a blocked writer played by Pierre Niney claims authorship of a novel left behind by a dead man. French audiences skew 40-plus, said Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, producer of \u201cA Perfect Man\u201d and \u201cThe Eavesdropper.\u201d With Niney, \u201cbeyond the 40+ plus demography, \u201cA Perfect Man\u201d also brought in \u201ca younger, more female crowd,\u201d he said.
The current rash of thrillers also have to be made with one with an eye on international market potential, Chambet argued. One way to achieve that is of course is to rack up international sales. \u201cThe Eavesdropper\u201d has sold to Japan (At Entertainment(, the U. K. (Arrow), Latin America (California), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Europictures), Scandinavia (Njuta), Switzerland (JMH), Canada (TVA) and multiple other territories.
Another strategy is to structure movies\u2019 financing so that they are not totally dependent on the French market. Vixens aims to produce three genre movies a year, said co-founder-producer Gary Farkas: One shot in English in the U. S. and co-financed by U. S. equity, such as David Raboy\u2019s upcoming \u201cThe Giant\u201d; European co-productions, such as \u201cHousewife,\u201d co-produced with Turkey and Denmark\u2019s Space Rocket Nation; and French features, but which are \u201cgenre\/art films with a strong message,\u201d such \u201cUn Prince.\u201d
The latter two film models allow their films to qualify as French nationality movies, easing sales to French pay TV operator Canal Plus. The U. S.-shot movies and co-productions are \u201clow-budget, high-concept, director-driven, the low budgets, limiting risk, making them more attractive to equity investors asked to finance the film or at least put up gap finance, Farkas added.
Vixens can also tap moneys from French distribution, international sales and funds such as the CNC French film board\u2019s Aide aux Cinemas du Monde.
Farkas said \u201cUn Prince\u201d is a crime drama in the vein of \u201cA Most Violent Year\u201d and Jacques Audiard\u2019s 2005 \u201cThe Beat That My Heart Skipped.\u201d
\u201cBasically what we are doing in France is like the culmination between our tastes and the style we need to attract the French market,\u201d he added.
France\u2019s genre renaissance doesn-t lok set to stop any time soon.
24 25 Films and WY Prods are, the companies behind \u201cA Perfect Man,\u2019 are teaming with Gaumont to produce \u2018Burn Out,\u201d the second feature from \u201cMan\u2019s\u201d Yann Gozlan. WTFilms and Haut et Court are joining forces for zombie movie \u201cThe Night.\u201d
It only takes one or two films to reverse a trend, the saying goes. Genre, thrillers traditionally play well on VOD.
\u201cBusiness is changing a lot. All bets are off, in a way. It\u2019s more difficult to know what will work our not. So people are open to taking more risks again,\u201d said Chambet.<\/p>\n

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